The teacher the magical system known as Hermetism of which high magic and alchemy are thought to be twin branches. The name Trismegistus means thrice greatest Hermes, and is the title given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Thoth or Tehuti, a lord of wisdom and learning.

both Thoth and Hermes revealed to humankind the healing arts, magic, writing, astrology, science, and philosophy. Thoth wrote the record of the weighing of the souls in the Judgment Hall of Osiris. Hermes led the souls of the dead to Hades.

The English occultist Francis Barrett in Biographia Antiqua wrote that Hermes \"communicated the sum of the Abyss, and divine knowledge to all posterity\"

The texts are usually referred to as the \"philosophical\" and \"technical\" hermetica. The former deals mainly with issues of philosophy, and the latter with magic, potions, etc. Among other things there are spells to magically protect objects, thus the term \"Hermetically sealed\".

In ancient times, the texts were thought to have been written at the dawn of time, but the classical scholar Isaac Casaubon in 1614 showed that the Greek texts betrayed a vocabulary too recent to be so old. Recent research suggests some of these texts may be of pharaonic Egyptian origin, although most of the \"philosophical\" Hermetica can be dated to around AD 300.

During the Middle ages and the Renaissance, the hermetic scriptures enjoyed great credit and were popular among men of alchemy. The \"hermetic tradition\" therefore refers to alchemy, magic and the like.

According to legend Hermes Trismegistus is said to have provided the wisdom of light in the ancient mysteries of Egypt. \"He carried an emerald, upon which was recorded all of philosophy, and the caduceus, the symbol of mystical illumination.